Expert Warns Of Child Obesity As The Number Of Kids Hitting The Gym Surges

Mr John Onuoha, a personal fitness trainer and expert, has urged parents to ensure that their children live active lives and eat healthy food to prevent obesity.

Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) he said that he observed that a lot of children were being registered in gyms by their parents in order to reverse their weight problems. He noticed that there was an increase in the number of overweight or obese children in the country due to their relaxed lifestyle and the rise in processed food consumption.

“As a fitness trainer, I am becoming worried by the number of young children that come to my gym to lose weight. As much as it is good for my business, I have to be honest and say this is very wrong. The amount of food we eat has to be equal to the amount we burn daily to maintain our weight which means we have to eat less than what we burn to achieve weight loss. Weight loss also has a lot to do with metabolism which refers to how fast your body can break down food consumed to produce energy therefore easily releasing the food consumed. People with high metabolisms lose weight faster than those with slower metabolisms. As an individual gets older, the metabolism slows down. This means children lose weight easily and faster than adults therefore, children have no business coming to exercise in a gym. Parents have to let their children go outside and play around. Children playing hide and seek, catcher, cycling around their compounds or climbing trees is enough of an exercise.” He said

He emphasized that this old fashioned ways of children running around helps their systems and bodies get used to burning calories and trans fat that they get from all the junk food that they concubine. He stressed that these days what kids do for fun is play video games at home, watch TV, go to the cinemas to watch movies where they consume more trans-fat and calories.

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“Since they are not moving their bodies by playing around with an activity, this sedentary lifestyle causes them to gradually put on weight. When the parents then notice the child is obviously overweight, they then register the child in a gym. The resentment causes the child to gradually become comfortable with the extra weight. Another disadvantage of introducing children to gyms is that they grow up believing that the only way to stay fit is by using a gym.” Onuoha Said.

He pointed out that one doesn’t need a gym to stay fit, for both parents and children, he encouraged that developing a habit to stay fit by running around would help the child to know that they don’t need a gym to stay fit, even when they put on some more weight when they get older.